Monday, September 22, 2014

Creating Memorable Characters

Quick: How many characters from books
can you name?

Time's up! Okay, now, how many
characters can you name from books you've actually read?

Of course, almost anyone can name a lot
of characters from books and, thanks to movies, you don't even have
to have read the books (believe me, I can tell you who the characters
from the Twilight series are and I haven't read the books or
seen the movies.) But how often do we read books and have very little
remembrance of the characters?

When writing in a particular genre like
mystery or romance, it's especially important for a writer to create
memorable characters. The reason is because each genre has certain
characters that must be included in order for the story to fit the
genre: a mystery must include a victim (whether they survive to the
end of the book or not depends on the kind of mystery), the villain
or perpetrator, and the sleuth. Also included must be the secondary
characters who may be “red herrings” to lead the sleuth astray of
the truth. Since my Black Horse Campground series revolves around
mysteries, we'll focus on that genre.

Since all mysteries must necessarily
include these characters, there's always a danger of creating
“cookie-cutter” characters—characters that look, sound, and act
similarly to other characters in other books in the same genre. When
I first became interested in becoming a mystery writer, I was 10 or
12 years old and I had been a big fan of Nancy Drew and The Three
Investigators. Naturally, my early inclinations were to create
sleuths who were bright teenage girls (with their own cars, of
course) or young adolescent boys who happened to have access to a
vintage limo (okay, THAT would be hard to imitate without giving away
the source of inspiration!) But that highlights my point: each of
these sleuths had something to make them stick in your mind.

As I got older, I got hooked on reading
Agatha Christie mysteries and she has created some of the most
memorable sleuths since Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes
(that name alone will stick in your mind, never mind all the other
traits Holmes has become famous for!) Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot
remain in your mind for their unique traits—Poirot's appearance and
eccentricities and Miss Marple's “ordinariness”. Those two
sleuths are examples of opposite ends of the spectrum of making a
character memorable.

The “different”kind of
character—there is something
about this kind of character that sticks in your mind because of a
physical trait that sets them apart from other characters in the
story and other characters in other books. Another author who pulled
this off is George C. Chesbro, whose PI, Dr. Robert Fredrickson,
a.k.a. “Mongo the Magnificent”, is the epitome of different: a
retired circus performer who is a university professor along with
being a private investigator and also happens to be a dwarf. Not only
does a unique character like this stick in the reader's mind, the
character is bound to have a circle of friends and other situations
that can add complications or opportunities to the character's story.
The problem is that utilizing this form of creating a unique
character is that the writer runs the risk of creating a caricature
instead of a character. Even Agatha Christie grew tired of Hercule
Poirot and his eccentricities after a while!

The “ordinary” kind of
character—this is the Miss
Marple proto-type: an ordinary, every day kind of person who finds
him or herself involved in the action of the story. And yet, Miss
Marple, because she could be your aunt or grandmother and is
generally the kind of little old lady a reader can care about, is a
character that sticks in your mind. The danger lies in creating an
ordinary character that doesn't do anything, just has things happen
to them. An “ordinary” character must, at the very least, have an
extraordinary sense of curiosity or justice or something that makes
them pursue the mystery... or else they get mixed up in the mystery
themselves and have no choice but to act in order to protect
themselves or their business or whatever happens to matter to them.
And an “ordinary” character doesn't have to be a civilian, like
Miss Marple; even a police officer can be an “ordinary”
character, just doing his or her job, until something about the case
makes it personal. What makes an “ordinary” character stand out
is what makes us care about that character.

Not sure who this actress is, but I never could quite see Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple!

In my
Black Horse Campground mysteries, the characters are all as
“ordinary” as you can get... just small-town folks (including the
local law enforcement) who appeal to readers on a personal level. I
wanted to create characters who stick in a reader's memory because
they have come to genuinely care about the characters and what
happens to them. I believe the easiest way for a writer to accomplish
this is to make sure that he or she, the writer, cares about the
characters.